Rodney Terry on Houston guard Jamal Shead: 'He knows what winning is about'

The Texas Longhorns played a hard-fought and tightly contested game against one of the newcomers to the Big 12 conference: the No. 4 ranked Houston Cougars. In the end, the Longhorns would fall on their homecourt and overtime 76-72. Houston guard Jamal Shead came up big in the matchup, leading all scorers with 25 points. And after the game, Texas head coach Rodney Terry took a moment to praise the senior guard.

“Yeah, Shead is tough; he’s a tough-minded guard. He’s an older player, [has] been in their program, and gonna probably going to leave as one of the all-time winningest players in their program,” said Terry. “He knows what winning is about; he won at a high level, and he made big winning plays down the stretch. We tried to take him out. I thought Chendall [Weaver] did a really good job of denying him the ball down the stretch and making someone else try to beat us down the stretch.”

Weaver was able to finally help slow down Shead, late in the second half and in overtime. However, the Longhorns failed to capitalize on the guard’s scoring drought, going scoreless in the final 1:38 of the second half.

When it was all said and done, Shead ended the game with the aforementioned points, eight rebounds, and four assists.

“Give him credit. He made some big plays and some winning plays. He sat down and guarded really hard. But it’s been a point of winning at the highest level, playing in the Final Four, playing the Elite Eight. So he understands what goes into winning, and he plays his role at a very high level.”

Joe Lunardi explains NCAA Tournament implications of Monday’s Houston-Texas matchup

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi broke down the scenarios, with Texas having the most to gain. Beating Houston would only distance them even more from the bubble and actually see upward movement on the seed list. These types of Quad 1 wins can be why you get in the NCAA Tournament.

As for Houston, Lunardi currently projects Kelvin Sampson‘s team as the No. 3 overall team in the field. Losing in the state’s capital would keep them as a one-seed but move down to No. 4 overall. A win would keep pace with the two teams ahead of the Cougars, Purdue and UConn.

“The Cougars would likely remain a 1-seed even with a loss at Texas tonight but North Carolina would eclipse them for the No. 3 overall,” Lunardi said. “The 10-seed Longhorns stay in the field with a loss, but move up one line with a victory.”

When the bracket is revealed, there is a chance double-digit Big 12 teams make the field. Houston is nearly a lock to do so, barring an epic collapse down the stretch. Texas certainly has a lot of work ahead of them and can add a positive data point to the resume with an in-state win on Monday night.